No. 11 Mizzou to open ‘unique’ 2024 season with playoff aspirations
Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden III signs an autograph for fan Sylvan Borns, 20, a sophomore at Mizzou, after Missouri’s Black and Gold spring game on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Mo.
Christine Tannous, Post-Dispatch
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COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Missouri football program has had unprecedented stages set for upcoming seasons before Eli Drinkwitz, but never has a year been set up quite like this.
His first season coaching the Tigers, in 2020, had all the reworkings and tension of the pandemic, which made it an oddity for every program in the nation. And sure, an ever-changing mix of players on the roster each season makes variety the norm.
From the margin of an expected victory to depth players' roles to the aggressiveness of playcalling, there's plenty to follow as the Tigers kick off their season.
But the 2024 preseason has already shown that this year is different.
“They’ve all been a little bit different and unique based off of different coaches, different players,” Drinkwitz said. “This one’s uniquely its own just because of the opportunities that lie ahead of us.”
Atop any list of opportunities available to No. 11 Mizzou this season, which begins at 7 p.m. Thursday against Murray State, is a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Never before have the Tigers, on the doorstep of a season’s start, been considered a legitimate playoff contender.
Expectations were high in 2008 when MU earned a No. 6 spot in the preseason AP Poll after briefly holding the top spot late in the 2007 season. Missouri also made it into the preseason Top 25 in 2011, 2014 and 2015.
But the College Football Playoff itself has only been around since 2014, and only four teams have made the cut in each season until now — meaning a very select number of teams could consider themselves legitimate contenders.
Make that a dozen, put Mizzou among the initial group and there’s something to the Tigers’ chances.
Internally, Drinkwitz is adamant that expanded opportunity doesn’t change any goals.
“From Day 1, our goal is to compete for the SEC and play for championships,” he said, “and that really hasn’t changed at all.”
Conversely, earning a spot in the Southeastern Conference title game this year became more difficult for MU with the additions of former Big 12 opponents Texas and Oklahoma. The Sooners are on the Tigers’ schedule in what might be the most hotly anticipated game of the year, and while the Longhorns aren’t, they’re among the favorites to finish atop the 16-team conference standings.
The differences for Missouri between the impending college football season and any other show themselves in subtle ways.
Drinkwitz, for example, continues to urge his players to avert their eyes and ears from preseason chatter — the timing and presence of that message are not unique at all. But look or listen closely, and something has changed.
“In the past, we had to ignore the noise and the naysayers,” Drinkwitz said. “Now, we’ve kind of got to ignore the noise and the praise-givers.”
The differences are also visible in two players who occupy quite different roles on the roster: quarterback Brady Cook and defensive tackle Chris McClellan. They play on opposite sides of the ball, of course, and while the latter is only an inch taller than the former, McClellan outweighs Cook by 115 pounds.
That’s not the difference of note — rather, it’s that they’re on this team through very different circumstances.
Mizzou recruited both out of high school. Cook committed to the Tigers; McClellan didn’t.
Cook’s journey led him from a backup role to a bowl game starter to an embattled starter to an embraced one. Beyond the use of a helicopter for his name, image, likeness promotional appearances, things are different for him on a personal level.
“The fact of the matter is, I have a lot more — whether you want to call it respect or love towards my name, whether it’s Mizzou fans or fans from Ƶ,” Cook said. “And that’s great. It’s a part of it, it’s a part of coming off a great season. But just as quickly, that can turn. I think it comes with the position, good or bad.”
McClellan, meanwhile, started his college career at Florida, where he played against MU before picking the Tigers out of the transfer portal. That’s a difference in itself — Missouri picking up a transfer from another SEC program.
The defensive tackle is aware of changes from his recruitment to the team he ultimately joined. The key to what he’s seen is that it didn’t surprise him.
“It’s definitely a big difference,” McClellan said. “Just seeing the development, just watching Drink — literally everything he told me when I was in high school, he’s done step by step.”
The inherent, and at times beneficial, churn of college football rosters means there will be differences in who suits up for the Tigers this fall. The defensive end wearing No. 6 is not Darius Robinson, who was a first-round draft pick for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, but five-star freshman Williams Nwaneri. There are two new starting cornerbacks, and Thursday will be defensive coordinator Corey Batoon’s first game in charge of the defense.
And in another change felt acutely by Cook, Cody Schrader won’t be Mizzou’s tailback. Transfer rushers Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll will share that duty this season.
“I mean, Cody took a ton of reps,” Cook said. “He would hardly come out of the game. He’s full-go every single play, so I always knew Cody was there in the backfield. It’s a little different.”
Time will tell just how different Missouri’s 2024 season will wind up being. Three nonconference home games and an SEC opener against Vanderbilt are a favorable start to the year. Mizzou might remain somewhat of a mystery until an October game at No. 20 Texas A&M.
But if proof can be in the pudding, the Tigers can find preseason validation in these differences — the kind that set the stage for a novel 2024 season.
3 things to watch as Mizzou opens 2024 football season against Murray State
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COLUMBIA, Mo. — And so it begins.
No. 11 Missouri opens its 2024 season at 7 p.m. Thursday against Murray State, continuing recent years’ trend of kicking off a campaign with a weeknight game.
This season, though, the game is already a sellout — a reflection of the Tigers’ stature both nationally and within their fan base.
The game will be televised on the SEC Network with Matt Barrie, former Florida coach Dan Mullen and Harry Lyles Jr. on the call.
Mizzou is favored by nearly seven touchdowns over the Racers, a Football Championship Subdivision program.
Here are three things to watch for in MU’s first game of the year:
What constitutes success for Mizzou?
For most games, the bar is set at winning. But in such a lopsided affair, most observers will probably want to see more than just a victory from the Tigers.
Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz outlined his expectations earlier in the week:
“Obviously, we want to see a downhill run attack. We want to see an explosive offense. We want to see an offense that creates pressure through tempo. We want to see an offense that executes in situational football. Defensively, we want to see a group that stops the run, is multiple on third downs, wins situational football and really good at tackling and taking the ball away. Special teams, we want to do a great job covering kicks, and then we want to be really good in the kicking phase.”
“All those things are (how) ideally we picture it, and we’ll see where we’re at come Thursday night,” Drinkwitz said.
Given that MU is aiming for an eventual spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff, there’s some external notion that “style points” might matter in the perception of this team’s strength. Personal preference likely dictates whether a viewer will consider five, seven or nine touchdowns of padding between the Tigers and Racers will be enough for a successful outing. Some will undoubtedly be more occupied with scoring than any other kind of margin.
What role will depth play?
If the early stages of Thursday night go as planned, Missouri shouldn’t be leaning on its starters by the later portions of the game. That could put a spotlight on some players who are still working to earn consistent playing time and opportunities.
The opener, for example, could give five-star freshman edge rusher Williams Nwaneri his first collegiate snaps, even though he is on the lower end of that position’s rotation. New backup quarterback Drew Pyne could be asked to test his transition into coordinator Kirby Moore’s offense. An offensive lineman like Logan Reichert, who impressed in spring practice but ceded a chance at a starting job to a more experienced transfer, could benefit from some live action. The plethora of young wide receivers — namely Joshua Manning and Daniel Blood — might be in line for targets.
And while there won’t be a different quarterback in each half for competitive reasons like there was in last season’s opener against an FCS foe, there are still some competitions that could be influenced by what happens on the field.
Chris McClellan was expected to have a more prominent spot in the defensive tackle rotation than Marquis Gracial, but that battle has evidently evened up down the stretch of preseason camp — and could see Gracial emerge as a starter.
And the running back dynamic has yet to be settled. Appalachian State transfer Nate Noel and Georgia State transfer Marcus Carroll are likely to be something of a committee. Lately, though, Missouri has trended toward featuring Noel more and giving Carroll the change-of-pace role.
“We have a plan on how we want to approach it,” Drinkwitz said. “Nate Noel will go out there first, and then him and Marcus will rotate through. I think those guys have good, complementary football skills, and they know how to play off each other. We understand we’re probably not going to have somebody that’s going to be able to carry it as many times in the game as Cody (Schrader), so we’ll have to do a good job of making sure we allow the starter to get into rhythm but also make sure they’re fresh.”
How open is the playbook?
At the start of last season, Mizzou’s offense looked rather muddy in its early games before exploding downfield more often as the year went on. Some of those initial struggles could certainly have been a byproduct of adjusting to Moore’s system, but there could have been a competitive element, too.
After all, what’s the value in putting especially crafty or creative plays on tape this early in the season when they could instead surprise tougher competition later on?
Drinkwitz countered the notion that the Tigers would be pulling play-calling punches Thursday.
“We’re trying to win Week 1,” he said. “The most important game we have on our schedule is this one, period. There’s no guarding, there’s no hiding. We just want to win.”
But he added some nuance to that, the kind that suggests schemes won’t be as adventurous now as they might be later.
“In order to win, you’ve got to call what your guys can execute and what your guys have had consistent reps at,” Drinkwitz said. “That doesn’t mean that your playbook is going to be wide open. It means that you’re going to call what you have repped in the 25 previous practices that you feel comfortable with in key situations.”
Hochman: He’s from the Lou, and you’re proud — QB Brady Cook appreciated by STL’s Mizzou fans
The reality is, you’d root for Mizzou quarterback Brady Cook if he was from St. Paul, Minnesota, or St. Petersburg, Florida, or even St. Vincent and the Grenadines. But because he’s from Ƶ — where you live, where the locals root for Mizzou — it just adds to the admiration.
It’s rare for Missouri’s quarterback to even be from Missouri, let alone our town, yet here we are, entering the most anticipated season in years — and not only does the guy under center like Imo’s Pizza, but his family actually owns and operates some Imo’s locations.
There is a significance, aura and weight to being a Ƶ QB for Mizzou. Cook is equipped to handle it all, cherish it all and rise because of it all (and avoid a fall).
“You can see the team gravitate towards the energy and the juice that he brings to the position,” said former Mizzou quarterback and Ƶ native Blaine Gabbert, who played 12 NFL seasons, starting 49 games. “He’s really been doing a great job, just (as I’ve been) watching from afar — and then having the chance to be back in Missouri last year with the Chiefs. Just seeing the success that he’s had, kind of working his way up, becoming better year in, year out. And the way he plays the game, it’s been a lot of fun to watch. He plays hard; he plays it the right way.”
Cook’s quest toward Mizzou immortality begins Thursday night against Murray State. The Tigers are the nation’s No. 11 team — and of course, 12 teams make the new College Football Playoff. I can’t recall this much anticipation for a Mizzou season — with the expanded CFP; so many key players back; the momentum from fans, boosters and NIL; the (relatively speaking) favorable schedule and the fact that with Luther Burden III, Mizzou has two of America’s better football players ... and both are from Ƶ.
Being Mizzou’s quarterback was the dream for Cook, a Ƶ kid who played high school ball at Chaminade. The redheaded Red Devil arrived across state and, simply fought off competition and, amid growing pains, shooed away the boos. He enters this season unequivocally as Mizzou’s field general and leader.
From Cook’s courageous scrambles to his famous fourth-and-17 first-down pass, the quarterback electrified Columbia last season. The Tigers went 11-2, losing only to Georgia, the then-defending national champs, and LSU, who had the Heisman winner at quarterback. And Cook finished sixth in the SEC in passing yards per game (255.2).
“I would describe him as a warrior,” Burden said of Cook during Mizzou’s media day. “Somebody who you’d love and go to (battle) with. I love being around him. He’s a good person — and he’ll do anything it takes to win.”
Just how uncommon is it for Mizzou’s quarterback to also be a Ƶan? The most recent starter is Gabbert himself (2008-10), who was the No. 10 overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft.
Missouri quarterback Brady Cook looks over to the bench during a game against Louisiana State on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Mo.
Laurie Skrivan, Post-Dispatch
As for being a two-fer to our area — the Mizzou quarterback and a Ƶ native — Gabbert said: “You know, it’s fun — now, there’s pressure that comes with that, but ultimately, there’s always pressure playing football.
There are a lot of people that are counting on you to play at a high level, and ultimately, it makes everyone’s job a lot easier if the quarterback is playing well. So it’s a great position to be in. ...
“With Mizzou being the state school, always selfishly, for me, you want to see a kid from the state play quarterback there. ... They’re personally invested. They grew up there. They grew up watching the school. And that’s a big thing, in my opinion.”
There haven’t been many, though. Starting signal-callers from the Ƶ area are rare. Before Cook and Gabbert (Parkway West), there were the likes of 1999 starter Jimmie Dougherty (Edwardsville), 1996 split-starter Kent Skornia (St. Francis Borgia), 1986 option quarterback Ronnie Cameron (East Ƶ) and Mike Hyde (of Lindbergh) in 1981, from a list compiled by former Post-Dispatch writer Dave Matter.
But in the 1960s and ’70s, numerous locals followed in the scampering footsteps of arguably Mizzou’s greatest quarterback, Paul Christman (Maplewood-Richmond Heights), who had two top-five finishes in Heisman voting while starring for Mizzou from 1938-40.
In the 1960s, there was a pair of Garys — Gary Lane (East Alton-Wood River) from 1963-65 and Gary Kombrink (Township in Belleville) from 1966-67.
And in the 1970s, Mizzou had Chuck Roper (Brentwood) in 1970-71, John Cherry (Pattonville) in 1972-73, Steve Pisarkiewicz (McCluer North) in 1974-76 and Pete Woods (University City) from 1975-77. It was Woods who famously won at Ohio State in 1976 — which was Mizzou’s most recent win over the Buckeyes until Cook cooked them in last season’s Cotton Bowl.
“Growing up in Ƶ during the ’60s and early ’70s, I followed the Tigers during the highly successful Dan Devine era,” Woods said via email. “My father and I could travel two hours to the west and take in a game, where I would watch some of the Tiger greats — Johnny Roland, Roger Wehrli, Mel Gray and others.
“There is a much closer connection to a university that is in your backyard, compared to what I would have experienced had I gone to one of the other schools who had offered — whether that was Notre Dame, USC, Michigan or even an Ivy League school on the East Coast.
My decision to return to Ƶ after playing in the NFL was also influenced by having played locally — why wouldn’t I return to a community where I grew up and was remembered fondly for having chosen to stay home and play for my state school? I continue to reap the benefits of that choice — as I practice law in my hometown where a few still recognize me for our great victories of the ’70s.”
And who knows, perhaps people will spot Cook around town in the 2070s.
How Eli Drinkwitz built Mizzou football’s ‘wilderness brotherhood’ with his words
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Eli Drinkwitz could be a writer.
At face value, this is a silly thought to have. Drinkwitz is the head coach of a Southeastern Conference football team, after all, which doesn’t seem like the kind of job that is conducive to having a lot of time for writing. Are there any $9 million a year writing jobs out there, anyway?
But at times, there’s a narrative, almost literary quality to Missouri’s coach, whose fifth season with the program begins at 7 p.m. Thursday with the 2024 opener against Murray State.
There’s something thematic about Drinkwitz’s team. His most memorable moments since taking the gig in 2020 haven’t been play calls — they’ve been words.
Like the ones he said live on national television after the Tigers’ signature Cotton Bowl win last season: “I think tonight was a testament to a wilderness brotherhood.”
Sit with that line for a moment. There’s a rhythm to those words. Subtle consonance, a gentle meter. And, more broadly, it was what those of us in the writing business call parallel structure: when a narrative element appears at both the beginning and the ending of the story.
In the immediate run-up to the Cotton Bowl, Mizzou held a team chapel session. It was voluntary, as those things are, but nonetheless well attended. Almost every player was there.
The chaplain who presided over chapel that night brought up those words: wilderness brotherhood.
The six syllables struck Drinkwitz and stuck with him. He thought about them the night before the game. And during pregame warm-ups, too.
The stadium felt different during the hour leading up to kickoff against Ohio State from any point in the week before, when Mizzou had practiced in the nearly vacant stadium for familiarity’s sake. The jumbotron of all jumbotrons overhead seemed more imposing.
A miniaturized indoor blimp flew lazy circles around the perimeter of the stands. There were football celebrities from Urban Meyer to Pat McAfee to Chase Daniel on the sidelines. The chatter and cheers of fans who’d traveled to Arlington, Texas, from Columbia and Columbus sounded different, too.
“It just hit me,” Drinkwitz told the Post-Dispatch.
What hit him were words, the ones he delivered to his team in the locker room before the Cotton Bowl.
With his white long-sleeve shirt rolled up to his forearms and pacing purposefully along a locker room wall, Drinkwitz called players into one segment of the locker room. He took off his white visor and held it by its brim.
“It’s a hell of a stage out there,” he said. “Want you to look at the person next to you and tell them, ‘You earned it.’”
Those words rebounded back at him from his players.
“You earned it through a lot of hard work,” Drinkwitz continued. “You earned it through up-downs. You earned it in the wilderness. You earned it when your brother was late and you had to fight for the brotherhood. You earned it on the bleachers. You earned the opportunity to be here today, to show the world who we were. They call them ‘blue bloods’ ...”
Here, he paused for a breath, his voice on the verge of breaking.
“Because they’ve been given everything their entire lives. They ain’t us. We’re wilderness forged. Forged in the toughness. Their time’s over. It’s our time. It’s your time. It’s showtime. You show the world who we really are.”
Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz yells during the Cotton Bowl, which Mizzou won, beating Ohio State 14-3, on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
David Carson, Post-Dispatch
‘Turn everything upside down’
One year and 110 days earlier, showing the world who the Tigers really were hadn’t been a pleasant experience.
Missouri walked away from a 40-12 drubbing at Kansas State on Sept. 10, 2022, forlorn and at least a little bit surprised.
“There was almost an arrogance to our team,” Drinkwitz said. “We thought we were better than we were. And then when it came to being in a dogfight, we didn’t really end up fighting back the way we needed to. And I think that kind of shook us.”
Mizzou’s lone touchdown came on the last play of the game, once the result had long since been settled and K-State fans were booing the visitors’ insistence on scoring some consolation points. Shiny new freshman wideout Luther Burden III barely had any chances to catch the ball. Quarterback Brady Cook was hurt, benched and reinstated over the course of that game.
“After that K-State game,” Cook said, “I was not in a good spot — physically, mentally, with the team.”
Drinkwitz, at that time still the offensive play-caller, was insistent of two things after depressive rain delays and defeat:
“I’m responsible for this team. Everything that happens to this football team is my fault.”
And:
“Brady’s our quarterback.”
Kansas State quarterback Adrian Martinez gets past Missouri defensive back Jaylon Carlies for a touchdown during the first half Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, in Manhattan, Kansas.
Charlie Riedel, AP Photo
After an austere bowl game loss to Wake Forest capped off the 2022 season, Drinkwitz wrote in his journal that some of those things needed to change.
“We got to turn everything upside down,” he wrote.
That meant hiring offensive coordinator Kirby Moore, a concrete way of relinquishing responsibility for offensive play calls, and declaring Cook’s job up for grabs. To coaches on the Missouri staff, it was Drinkwitz acknowledging the demands and limitations of his job.
“Usually everybody becomes a head coach because of success they’ve had in another position, right?” special teams coordinator Erik Link said. “Whether it’s as a coordinator, as a position coach, whatever the case may be. You’re bringing that expertise to the table as a head football coach, but there’s so many different hats you have to wear.”
To Mizzou players, it was their coach holding himself to one of the expectations he had for them: embracing their role on the team, whatever that looked like.
“Coach Drink, he got a lot more consistent with the standard,” wide receiver Mookie Cooper said.
And it was something that changed Drinkwitz’s persona.
“I’ve just seen him, I guess, get more comfortable,” Burden said. “I feel like when I first got here, he was kind of tense. Because he’s not the offensive coordinator, he’s more comfortable in just being the head coach. He ain’t got all the pressure on ‘You got to make the right call, then you got to worry about the defense.’ He could just be a head coach.”
‘Turned the table on our relationship’
After the famous Sept. 16, 2023, 61-yard walk-off field goal victory that exorcised Missouri’s K-State demons and set in motion a special campaign, Drinkwitz switched up his rhetoric.
As a sort of precedent for how he would approach his pregame speech at the Cotton Bowl, he’d been chewing on an idea for some time before feeling compelled to put it into words.
He’d noticed what was, to him, a sickening side effect of the quarterback competition he’d felt was so necessary to find success. Cook, after retaining his starting job, had been booed by MU fans.
“That pissed me off,” Drinkwitz said just minutes after the field goal and field storming. “He went out and played his butt off for that team. They need to get behind him. That’s bullcrap. That should never happen.”
Missouri head coach Eliah Drinkwitz talks with quarterback Brady Cook during the team's spring game on Saturday, March 19, 2022, in Columbia, Mo.
Jeff Roberson, Associated Press
Choosing a scathing tone and such illustrative words was an almost instinctual decision for Drinkwitz.
“Look, you won the game so you might as well make sure that people know,” he thought. “I was never going to have more credibility at that point with the team and with the fan base than after that win, so I figured I’d use it. I was hopeful that the fans and the students would respond.”
He executed the transition from compelled to compelling. That upset of a ranked K-State squad was pivotal for last year’s Missouri team, perhaps for no player more than Cook, the subject of the boos and forceful backing. Drinkwitz’s words may have mattered to him more than the win did.
“The respect I gained for him right then and there, immediately I was like, ‘wow, this coach has my back,’” Cook said. “I think that turned the table on our relationship. From there, we were in it together. We were gonna go do something special last year. I knew he had my back, right?”
‘Unbelievable to witness’
This is a story about culture building and the role that Drinkwitz has played in crafting the atmosphere within the Missouri football program.
Credit for that kind of thing tends to flow back and forth between coaches and players like sand in an hourglass, with each group eager to attest that the other is foundational in constructing the right kind of locker room. Who’s to say they’re wrong? Both have roles to play.
But Drinkwitz’s seems outsized — or at a minimum, notable.
“It starts with him,” wide receivers coach Jacob Peeler said.
“Coach Drink, from Day 1, has preached culture,” cornerbacks coach Al Pogue said.
It’s worth noting that Drinkwitz’s efforts in this realm do date back to the start of his tenure. While handing over the playsheet was part of MU’s transformation from middling to contending, leaning more into culture-building wasn’t necessarily a factor.
“That would probably be saying that I didn’t do that before, and that was clearly something that we did,” Drinkwitz said, before a joke: “Obviously, I wasn’t spending enough time play designing.”
Few players can provide proof of concept for Drinkwitz’s cultural command like Cook. One of a handful of players to have stuck around since the head coach’s first season at Mizzou, he’s gone through his own rollercoaster of faith with Drinkwitz that was exemplified so clearly by those two games against Kansas State.
“We came in together in 2020 to a completely mixed-up locker room with people that committed to a different coach, people that played for a different coach and all that,” Cook said. “Somehow, him being able to bring in the building coaches or players that complement us, fit the culture, shaping this into his team and shaping this into a winning culture, it’s been unbelievable to witness all of it.”
‘The truth of a cliché’
Something to prove.
It’s both intentional and somewhat miraculous that it’s taken until this point to get to those three words because they’re everywhere around Mizzou football: on the massive TV screen just inside the team facility doors, splashed onto the end of team videos, inserted into too many press conference questions, embedded in the psyche of players and coaches alike.
There simultaneously seems to be nothing to it and everything to it. After all, how many times can one phrase be said before it becomes a cliché? If there is such a threshold, surely Missouri has crossed it by now.
Maybe that’s the wrong way to think about it.
“When you sense the truth of a cliché, you can say you’ve learned something,” the great French writer Emmanuel Carrère once said. And you can’t say that Mizzou having something to prove isn’t true.
“When you look back and look at the players on our team last year — and the coaching staff — we all had a common theme of having to prove who we were and having some serious disappointments in our careers or life,” Drinkwitz said.
And that’s why it works as a motto, right? Because it’s true?
“Yeah. That’s the bottom line,” Drinkwitz said. “We all feel two different things about it. We all feel like there’s a lot left to prove because we’ve been discounted. But there’s also a lot to prove to the people who believe in us, who’ve given us an opportunity. There’s a lot of motivation in both sides of that.”
It’s also why a chaplain painting the spiritual portrait of a wilderness brotherhood — and Drinkwitz drawing upon that in his pregame address — was so profoundly effective and affective at the Cotton Bowl.
Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz celebrates with quarterback Brady Cook as he holds the offensive MVP trophy after Mizzou beat Ohio State University in the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023.
Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz celebrates with quarterback Brady Cook as he holds the offensive MVP trophy after Mizzou beat Ohio State University in the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023.
David Carson, Post-Dispatch
David Carson, Post-Dispatch
“I feel like it resonated with what we were going through and how we have a chip on our shoulder at all times,” defensive tackle Kristian Williams said.
“It resonated with our team just because our team’s been in the ‘wilderness,’” Cook said. “We’ve been through adversity. We’ve been at the bottom together.”
“That pregame speech was the pregame speech of everything, combined, that whole season,” defensive end Johnny Walker Jr. said. “I felt like it was everything that we went through that year and all the adversity. That was a moment we were all waiting for.”
And a moment they remember dearly. Every Mizzou player asked about Drinkwitz’s pre-Cotton Bowl speech smiled when hearing the words “wilderness brotherhood” and thinking of their coach’s voice pressing against the limit of breaking within his emotional delivery.
That’s the narrative firepower of a wilderness brotherhood with something to prove, of Drinkwitz’s own messaging. He’s synthesized a locker room full of successes and failures, victories and disappointments and — risk of cliché be damned — found a truthful theme.
Which makes him a writer, right?
“I mean, I write stuff down,” Drinkwitz said. “But no, I’m not a writer.”
Mizzou football season opener vs. Murray State reaches sellout status
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri is starting off with a sellout.
Thursday's football home opener against Murray State reached sellout status Wednesday morning, Mizzou athletics said, extending a streak of full stadiums.
The Tigers' sellout streak is now at six games, dating back to the beginning of last season's surprise breakout.
MU coach Eli Drinkwitz had showed more of an edge than usual as he pushed fans to buy tickets for the opener, but his approach evidently worked.
“Our challenge is we need to sell out this first game,” Drinkwitz said last week. “We’re a top 11 program in the country coming off a Cotton Bowl win. In my opinion, if we don’t sell out the first game, then that shows me that we’re not where we want to be as a fan base yet. I mean, that’s just the reality of it. Don’t sit on the sideline and wait: ‘It’s got to be this game.’ No, it doesn’t. Come watch this team and be excited about this team and embrace this team."
Two other games on the 2024 schedule have already sold out: The single-game ticket supplies were quickly exhausted for Missouri's October 19 homecoming game against Auburn and November 9 Big 12 reunion against Oklahoma.
Mizzou also sold out of season tickets, crossing the 40,000-threshold for those sales for the first time since 2015. Student season ticket sales have more than doubled since 2022.
Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz speaks with the media on Sunday, July 28, 2024, before the start of preseason camp. (Video by Mizzou Network, used with permission of Mizzou Athletics)
Mizzou to add logos of 2 Columbia companies to Memorial Stadium field in new sponsor deals
COLUMBIA, Mo. — The logos of two Columbia companies will appear on the field at Missouri's Memorial Stadium this season, reflecting the school's efforts to adopt new revenue generation strategies amid an accelerated need for funding in college sports.
Shelter Insurance and EquipmentShare will each have a logo on the Tigers' playing surface. The insignias will be located on each 25-yard line and are expected to be in place for Mizzou's Thursday home opener against Murray State.
Financial terms of both sponsorship deals were not immediately available Tuesday, but that the agreements are for multiple years.
"We are thrilled to partner with Shelter Insurance and EquipmentShare in this historic initiative," MU athletics director Laird Veatch said in a statement. "Both companies have deep roots in our community, and their support is a testament to their commitment to Mizzou Athletics, our teams and our student-athletes. This collaboration not only sets a new standard in collegiate athletics but also demonstrates the power of partnerships in driving innovation.”
The sponsorship agreements are managed by media rights holder Mizzou Sports Properties, which operates as part of Learfield.
“It was important that we found the right partners who are both integral members of our community and committed supporters of Missouri Athletics for these historic on-field logo sponsorships,” Mizzou Sports Properties General Manager Josh Pell said in a statement. “Shelter Insurance and EquipmentShare are the perfect partners with the unique combination of local headquarters and a desire for national branding exposure.”
That MU is adding field sponsors for this season is unsurprising: Veatch told the Post-Dispatch earlier in the summer that he was "absolutely" interested in securing those partnerships.
“It has to be an interest," Veatch said. "It has to be something that we take and present as opportunities to partners like that — that want to help us but also want to really help their brand and their company. Those are huge opportunities.”
“I’m really encouraged to see that, nationally, we’re also evolving on that side because we’re going to need more and more corporate support,” MU athletics director Laird Veatch said.
Missouri appears to be the second Southeastern Conference school to announce on-field sponsorships, following Tennessee.
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel moved to allow the display of logos on playing surfaces over the offseason. Under new rules, programs could also add a central logo at midfield, but that seemed like an unappealing idea for most programs — particularly those in the tradition-rich SEC.
Interestingly, though, the logos cannot be on display for any College Football Playoff games held at schools' home sites.
With the cost of remaining competitive in college sports rising and revenue-sharing with athletes on the horizon, on-field advertisements make for more available funds at a time that most athletics departments could certainly use it.
"This change allows schools to generate additional income to support student-athletes,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement following the rule change. “I’m pleased that we could find flexibility within our rules to make this happen for member schools.”
Veatch agreed with that reasoning.
"I’m really encouraged to see that, nationally, we’re also evolving on that side because we’re going to need more and more corporate support,” he said. “Those types of opportunities, we have to be — I believe — aggressive with. We have to really look to leverage those kinds of things because the price to compete is going up.”
BenFred: 5 things I’ll be tracking through Missouri football’s first 4 games
Missouri’s Blake Craig (19) prepares to kick during Missouri’s Black and Gold spring game on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Mo.
Christine Tannous, Post-Dispatch
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Thanks to Florida State, Eli Drinkwitz’s Missouri football team should have at least a No. 10 by its name the next time the AP Top 25 updates, along with something even more valuable.
The Seminoles fumbling their season opener against unranked Georgia Tech didn’t just free up the No. 10 spot — it gave Mizzou a fresh reminder that the smaller the number next to your program’s name shrinks, the bigger the target on your back grows.
Whether you play in Ireland or America, on a Week Zero Saturday morning or Labor Day Thursday night, highly ranked teams must be ready for opponents’ best shots — or else.
Mizzou should win its first four games. If it doesn’t, something very bad happened, and high hopes for a College Football Playoff debut will disappear faster than an unguarded CJ’s hot wing at a Tigers tailgate. Mizzou taking care of business against Murray State, Buffalo, Boston College and, yes, Vanderbilt before what could become one massive trip to Texas A&M is a more than reasonable expectation. But let’s not pretend we won’t learn some things about Mizzou until then.
We will soon find out if the Tigers are able to handle predicted success or if they look determined to self-sabotage. We will learn if the “something to prove” edge of last season dulled after Cotton Bowl success. We will see if the Tigers get caught sleepwalking — looking at you, 11:45 a.m. kickoff in Game 3 — or behave like a top 10 team should. And more.
Here are the five things I’m most interested in tracking through Mizzou’s first four games:
Style points could mean a lot to this team at the end of the season. Can Mizzou provide them from the start?
Let’s face it. The Tigers’ nonconference schedule could have been sponsored by Charmin. And their SEC schedule is the most forgiving of any team’s in the league, at least on paper before games start. Perception matters, and perception says Mizzou has an “easy” schedule for an SEC member. This could be a talking point if the Tigers eventually find themselves on the CFP bubble.
Strength of schedule will be a big metric for bubble teams. Strength of schedule won’t be a strength for Mizzou. But style points can combat a soft-schedule narrative to some degree. You’re probably less likely to get punished by CFP committee members for playing a softer schedule if you are hard on the opponents that fill it. Beating Murray State by multiple touchdowns won’t get lots of love, but barely beating Murray State by a field goal? That could catch some side eyes later.
Last season, Drinkwitz intentionally tamped things down through Mizzou’s first two tuneup games. This season, it’s probably better to let things rip from the start.
Mizzou’s hefty bet on instant-impact transfer solutions at positions of need is best illustrated in the backfield, where Nate Noel (Appalachian State) and Marcus Carroll (Georgia State) will get the first cracks at making the NFL departure of Cody Schrader, last season’s SEC lead rusher, seem manageable. But key transfers are found throughout the top of the depth chart.
Offensive linemen Marcus Bryant (Southern Methodist) and Cayden Green (Oklahoma) are being trusted to protect starting quarterback Brady Cook’s blind side upon arrival. A defense that lost a lot of talent from a season ago is asking transfers to bolster its front (Florida defensive tackle Chris McClellan) and its back (Clemson corner Toriano Pride Jr.).
Transfers tend to click, or not. You can get some sense of it regardless of the opponent.
Will freshmen force bigger roles? Running back Kewan Lacy is too fast to not get a few chances to carve out more playing time than originally expected. Pass rusher Williams Nwaneri got one step closer to the field when Georgia transfer Darris Smith suffered a season-ending injury.
Young Tigers the coaches would ideally like to redshirt can still play in four games before they have to be sidelined to preserve their eligibility. If they’re going to convince the staff to burn the redshirt because of their importance to this season, the convincing has to start early.
New Mizzou defensive coordinator Corey Batoon gets an enviable SEC introduction. Four games at home to start his new gig. Against teams his team should beat.
I’d like to see opposing quarterbacks look uncomfortable. If you can’t create pressure against Murray State, you’re not going to get much going against Alabama. Mizzou averaged three sacks per game last season, which was third-most in the SEC. Mizzou’s D under ex-DC Blake Baker also was the best at stopping opponents from scoring touchdowns once they reached the red zone. They bent but they rarely broke compared with their SEC peers.
MU opponents last season scored TDs less than 54% of the time once they reached the red zone. Can Batoon’s version of defense clamp down like that? Time to find out.
Last one. Big one. Does Mizzou have a kicker it can trust? Like, really trust?
The Thicker Kicker is not squeezing through that door. SEC record-setter Harrison Mevis is now trying to carve out his NFL career. Any guesses on what percentage of Mizzou field goals Mevis had attempted since he secured old job in 2020? Answer: 100%.
Hopefully, for the Tigers’ CFP hopes, they won’t need any game-winning field goal dramatics through their first four games. But you better believe they will need a game-winning kick (or two) at some point if they are going to crack the first-ever 12-team playoff.
All eyes are on former five-star kicker Blake Craig. His next in-game college football field goal will be his first and the first by a Mizzou kicker not named Mevis since Tucker McCann back in 2019. Coaches should find ways to pressure test the new leg before it decides a game.
No. 11 Mizzou using unconventional methods to scout FCS opponent Murray State
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COLUMBIA, Mo. — There’s an action movie-worthy acronym that circulates around defense and national security circles in this age of the internet: OSINT. Meaning “open-source intelligence,” it refers to the kind of, yes, intelligence that is floating around in the public domain for any ol’ Curious George to find.
Missouri’s coaching staff has leaned on OSINT lately because it’s all they have when it comes to the No. 11 Tigers’ first opponent of the season: Murray State.
“That’s the challenge,” MU coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “There’s really no way to watch Murray State film because they’ve got brand-new offensive, defensive and special teams coordinators, they got 60 new players. You can watch their schemes from last year to try to see what their players are, but they’re not going to be running the exact same stuff. Trying to figure out what your matchups are is almost impossible.”
So let’s scout Murray State.
The Racers are a Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS, program, so they don’t get the kind of preseason coverage that even mediocre or bad Football Bowl Subdivision teams do.
Phil Steele publishes an annual encyclopedia of FCS previews alongside his FBS one, but this beat writer couldn’t justify that added expense for analysis of one team. Lindy’s magazine predicts Murray State to finish last in the Missouri Valley conference, offering a dozen words of explanation: “Dean Hood left for Kentucky staff, ex-South Carolina asst. Jody Wright in.”
That’s a good baseline. Hood and the Racers parted ways after going 2-9 overall and 1-7 in conference play last season.
In came Wright, who carries a strong resume for a first-time head coach. He spent the past two seasons as South Carolina’s tight ends coach, so he’s been to Columbia and Memorial Stadium before. Wright spent 2019-21 in the NFL, including a season each coaching standout running backs Saquon Barkley and Nick Chubb in position-specific roles. He was also Alabama’s director of player personnel for a few seasons under Nick Saban.
“Coach Wright is an excellent football coach,” Drinkwitz said. “He does an outstanding job. ... He’s got a lot of different types of coaches on his staff, so we’re trying to pull film from a lot of different places to get an idea of what they’re going to do.”
Defensive coordinator Ryan Smith arrived at Murray State from Florida A&M. Offensive play-caller Jimmy Ogle has spent the past two seasons coaching high school after more than two decades on the staff at Jacksonville State.
“The last time he called plays was at Jacksonville State two years ago,” Drinkwitz said, part of why “it’s a real challenge to have any idea of what they’re going to do schematically.”
In some interviews, Wright has hinted broadly at schematic ideas but hasn’t been overly specific in revealing his plans.
“We do want to have some pro-style schemes,” he said . “I say pro-style and I think everybody’s kind of doing similar stuff. We would like to be balanced, run and pass. We do like to play with the tight ends, possibly — we’re still figuring out right now whether we want to be more two-tight end or two-running back or 10 (one running back, no tight ends, four wide receivers) personnel.”
Determining individual players to watch for is also difficult. There isn’t a readily available Murray State depth chart projection floating around on the internet.
Two Racers did make it onto the Senior Bowl preseason watch list, though, indicating that they’re somewhere on the radar of NFL scouts and front offices: defensive back Kavan Reed, who played at East Ƶ in high school, and defensive lineman CJ Barnes.
Offensively, Jayden Johannsen seems like the favorite to be Murray State’s quarterback when Thursday evening rolls around. That’s who Mizzou is preparing for, anyway — the scout team quarterback in Sunday’s practice wore Johannsen’s No. 7.
Even equipped with that knowledge, it’s tough to get a read on what the Racers’ signal-caller can do. He has played the past four seasons at South Dakota Mines, a Division II school best known for allowing a few hundred cars to park right next to the field, allowing for in-game tailgating and honking.
There, Johannsen assembled a 2022 season with 3,199 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, 526 rushing yards and eight scores of his own that made him a nominee for the Harlon Hill Trophy — Division II’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
Oh, and he was the Hardrockers’ punter, too.
Finding his game film in particular required Mizzou to deploy its OSINT skills.
“We’re watching Hudl tape in order to figure out what he’s done, on the internet,” Drinkwitz said.
He’s referring to a popular website for football prospects to upload videos from games to assemble personal highlight reels. Sure enough, highlights from South Dakota Mines games are on there, with containing a lengthy touchdown pass from a game against Colorado Mesa last year touting 289 views — some of which must have come from within the Missouri team facility.
Drinkwitz said the scouting challenges make Thursday’s game against Murray State “probably the most difficult opening game that we faced since I’ve been here.”
The 2020 opener against eventual national champion Alabama, for whom Heisman winner DeVonta Smith starred, would like a word there. But even with Mizzou favored by more touchdowns than can be counted on one hand, the scouting element of the 2024 opener adds some intrigue to the Tigers’ preparations.
